Fire destroys Troy man’s garage

Crews work to clean up the remains of a fire-destroyed garage on the Bangor Road in Troy on Monday. Fire ripped through the building on Saturday night.

Alex Barber | BDN | BDN

Alex Barber | BDN | BDN

Crews work to clean up the remains of a fire-destroyed garage on the Bangor Road in Troy on Monday. Fire ripped through the building on Saturday night.

TROY, Maine — An explosive fire burned a local businessman’s garage to the ground late Saturday night.

Charlie Henderson used the garage for his business, Henderson’s Trucking, along Route 202 on Bangor Road.

“All the contents were a complete loss. Anything surrounding it was a complete loss,” said Larry Raymond, Troy Volunteer Fire Department chief. “There were a few explosions.”

Henderson was about to go to bed when his wife heard the noise.

“My wife said it sounded like a hailstorm coming down,” said Charlie Henderson. “We came out and the garage was on fire.”

Raymond said spare tires exploded and an acetylene torch also ruptured, but didn’t explode.

Henderson’s house, which was not attached to the garage, was undamaged. There were no people or pets in the garage.

Firefighters from Burnham, Unity, Thorndike and Dixmont aided Troy volunteers in battling the fire. Raymond said he got the call about 10:15 p.m. and didn’t leave the fire scene until about 1 a.m.

“We did call [the Department of Environmental Protection] because there was a lot of oil and grease and a lot of uncertainties with the burning metal,” said Raymond, who added there’s a swampy area behind the property.

Raymond said battling a garage fire offers different risks to firefighters than a house fire.

“Any garage fire is a dangerous situation,” said Raymond. “There’s more of a danger factor because of the gas, diesel, oil and everything else. I was dealing with some hot metal because the heat was so intense, the metals just melted.”

Raymond said he thinks he may know what caused the fire, but wouldn’t comment until he knew for sure.

Henderson said he has some insurance, but didn’t think it would cover all the losses.